Internet protocol television services are beginning operation and will soon be a common way for consumers to obtain television programming. However, since the Internet was not designed for such applications, the quality can vary depending upon many factors.
IVL (known commercially as BIVL™—Bravia™ Internet Video Link, trademark of Sony Corporation) is a video streaming device that is able to connect to a multitude of servers in varying locations in order to provide television services via the Internet. This causes multiple network paths to become evident to each IVL unit based on location, ISP, etc. This means that quality of service QoS can vary due to a number of factors. A system is needed to allow for distributed diagnostics for the Internet video link, thereby, allowing QoS testing from which various tweaking can occur from the data gathered by DDRIVL (Distributed Diagnostics for the Internet Video Link) to enhance the user experience.